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Al Purdy
Canadian | field = writer, editor and poet | training = Albert College, Trenton Collegiate Institute | movement = | works = }} Alfred Wellington Purdy OC O.Ont (December 30, 1918 - April 21, 2000) was a popular and important Canadian poet of the 20th century. Life Overview Purdy's writing career spanned more than 50 years. His works include over 30 books of poetry, a novel, 2 volumes of memoirs, and 4 books of correspondence. He has been called Canada's "unofficial poet laureate" and "a national poet in a way that you only find occasionally in the life of a culture."Brooke, James (April 26, 2000). Al Purdy, Poet, Is Dead at 81; A Renowned Voice in Canada. The New York Times. Retrieved on: April 18, 2008. Youth and education Purdy was born in Wooler, Ontario. He attended Albert College in Belleville, Ontario, and Trenton Collegiate Institute in Trenton, Ontario. He dropped out of school at 17 and rode the rails west to Vancouver. Career Purdy served in the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II. Following the war, he worked in various jobs until the 1960s, when he was finally able to support himself as a writer, editor and poet.University of Toronto Library. Al Purdy, Biography. Canadian Poets Series. Retrieved on: April 19, 2008. In 1957, Purdy and his wife Eurithe moved to Roblin Lake in Ameliasburgh, Ontario (south of Trenton in Prince Edward County), where they built an A-frame cottage, and this became his preferred location for writing.The A-Frame In his later years, he divided his time between North Saanich, British Columbia, and his cottage at Roblin Lake. In addition to his poems and novel, Purdy's work includes 2 volumes of memoirs, the most recent of which was Reaching for the Beaufort Sea. He also wrote 4 books of correspondence, including Margaret Laurence - Al Purdy: A Friendship in Letters, and radio and television plays for the CBC. He was writer in residence at several Canadian universities, and edited a number of anthologies of poetry. He wrote the introduction to the last book of poetry by his friend Milton Acorn, The Whiskey Jack. Purdy was also a long-time friend of American author Charles Bukowski. Bukowski once said: "I don't know of any good living poets. But there's this tough son of a bitch up in Canada that walks the line." Purdy died in North Saanich, B.C., on April 21, 2000. Recognition Honors and awards Purdy received include the Order of Canada (OC) in 1982 and the Order of Ontario in 1987. He won a Governor General's Award for poetry twice, in 1965 for his collection The Cariboo Horses, and again in 1986 for The Collected Poems of Al Purdy. The League of Canadian Poets gave Purdy the Voice of the Land Award, a special award created by the League to honor his unique contribution to Canada. Beyond Remembering: The collected poems of Al Purdy, was released posthumously in the fall of 2000. Purdy's collection, Rooms for Rent in the Outer Planets: Selected poems, 1962-1996, was chosen for inclusion in Canada Reads 2006, where it was championed by poet Susan Musgrave. On May 20, 2008, a large bronze statue of Purdy was unveiled in Queen's Park in downtown Toronto. A grass-roots movement to preserve Purdy's A-frame cottage in Ameliasburgh was organized by Jean Baird (wife of poet George Bowering) and Purdy's publisher Howard White of Harbour Publishing, who together founded the A-Frame Trust with the intent of raising $1 million to preserve the house as a memorial to Purdy and a writing retreat for other writers.Save Al Purdy's House Campaign The Al Purdy A-Frame Association bought the cottage and established a residency program in 2014.Al Purdy, Borealis Records. Web, May 6, 2019. In popular culture A documentary film, Al Purdy Was Here, directed by Brian D. Johnson, was released in 2015, and nominated for the People's Choice Awards at that year's Toronto International Film Festival.Al Purdy Was Here, Internet Movie Database. Web, May 6, 2019. In 2018 Borealis Records released The Al Purdy Songbook,The Al Purdy Songbook, Amazon.ca. Web, May 6, 2019. featuring performances from the 2015 film, including songs by Bruce Cockburn, Gordon Downie, and Sarah Harmer, and readings by Margaret Atwood, Leonard Cohen, and Michael Ondaatje. Borealis sells the movie, in both DVD and Blueray formats, and the audio CD in a 3-disc set.The Al Purdy Songbook, Borealis Records. Web, May 6, 2019. Publications Poetry *''The Enchanted Echo''. Vancouver: Clarke & Stuart, 1944. *''Pressed on Sand''. Toronto: Ryerson, 1955. *''Emu, Remember!. Fredericton, NB: Fiddlehead Poetry Books, 1956.The Great Purdyana Auction, Harbour Publishing. Web, May 20, 2013. *''The Crafte So Longe to Lerne (illustrated by J.E.H. MacDonald). Toronto: Ryerson, 1959. *''The Blur in Between: Poems, 1960-1961''. Toronto: Emblem, 1962. *''Poems for All the Annettes''. Toronto: Contact Press, 1962; Toronto: Anansi, 1968. *''The Cariboo Horses''. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1965. *''North of Summer: Poems from Baffin Island'' (illustrated by A.Y. Jackson). Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1967. *''Wild Grape Wine''. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1968. *''The Quest for Ouzo''. Trenton, ON: printed by M. Kerrigan Almey, 1969. *''The Old Woman and the Mayflowers''. Ottawa, ON: Blue R Press, 196-? *''Love in a Burning Building''. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1970. *''Nine Bean-Rows on the Moon''. Trenton, ON: 1970. *''Poems for Voices''. Toronto: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 1970. *''Hiroshima Poems''. Trumansburg, NY: Crossing Press, 1972. *''Selected Poems''. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1972. ISBN 0771071891 *''Scott Hutcheson's Boat''. Prince George ,BC: College of New Caledonia, 1973. *''On the Bearpaw Sea'' (illustrated by Jean Wong). Burnaby, BC: Blackfish Press, 1973; Toronto: Red Maple Foundation, 1974. *''Sex & Death''. McLelland & Stewart, 1974. *''In Search of Owen Roblin''. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1974. *''The Poems of Al Purdy'' (with autobiographical introduction). Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1976. *''Sundance at Dusk''. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1976.Search results: Al Purdy, Open Library, May 13, 2011. *''A Handful of Earth''. Coatsworth, ON: Black Moss Press / Oakville, ON: Mosaic Press, 1977. *''At Marsport Drugstore''. Sutton West, ON: Paget Press, 1977. *''No Other Country''. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1977. *''Moths in the Iron Curtain''(with Euretha Purdy). Cleveland, OH: Black Rabbit Press, 1977; Sutton West, ON: Paget Press, 1979. *''No Second Spring''. Coatsworth, ON: Black Moss Press, 1977. *''Being Alive: Poems, 1958-1978''. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1978. *''The Stone Bird''. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1981. *''Birdwatching at the Equator: The Galapagos Island poems.'' Sutton West, ON / Santa Barbara, CA: Paget Press, 1982. *''Piling Blood''. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1984. *''Collected Poems, 1956-1968''. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1986. *''The Woman on the Shore''. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1990. *''Collected Poems.'' Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1990. *''Naked with Summer in Your Mouth''. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1994. *''Rooms for Rent in the Outer Planets: Selected poems 1926-1996''. Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 1996. *''To Paris Never Again''. Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 1997. *''Beyond Remembering: Collected poems''. Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 2000. *''Home Country: Selected poems.'' Parry Sound, ON: Church Street Press, 2000. *''The More Easily Kept Illusions'' (edited by Robert Budde). Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2006. Novel *''A Splinter in the Heart: A novel''. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1990. Non-fiction *''Morning and It's Summer: A memoir''. Dunvegan, ON: Quadrant Editions, 1983. *''Reaching for the Beaufort Sea: An autobiography''. Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publising, 1993. *''Starting from Ameliasburgh: Collected prose'' (edited by Sam Solecki). Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 1995. Collected editions *''Bursting Into Song: An Al Purdy omnibus''. Windsor, ON: Black Moss Press, 1982. *''The Al Purdy A-Frame Anthology'' (by Purdy & others; edited by Paul Vermeersch). Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 2009.The Al Purdy A-Frame Anthology, Harbour Publishing. Web, May 20, 2013. Edited *''The New Romans: Candid Canadian opinions of the U.S.. New York: St. Martin’s Press / Edmonton: Hurtig, 1968. *''Fifteen Winds: A selection of modern Canadian poems. Toronto: Ryerson, 1969. *''Storm Warning: The new Canadian poets''. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1971. *''Storm Warning 2: The new Canadian poets''. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1976. *''No One Else Is Lawrence!'' (edited with Doug Beardsley). Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 1998. *''The Man Who Outlived Himself: An Appreciation of John Donne'' (edited with Doug Beardsley). Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 2000. Letters *''The Bukowski-Purdy Letters: A decade of dialogue, 1964-1974'' (with Charles Bukowski; edited by Seamus Cooney). Sutton West, ON: Paget Press, 1983.*''The Purdy-Woodcock Letters: Selected correspondence, 1964-1984'' (with George Woodcock; edited by George Galt). Toronto: ECW Press, 1988. *''Laurence-Purdy: A friendship in letters'' (with Nargaret Laurence; edited by John Lennox). Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1994. *''Yours, Al: Collected letters'' (edited by Sam Solecki). Madeira Park, BC: Harbour, 1998. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Al Purdy, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, May 6, 2019. Audio / video Audio *''Alfred W. Purdy'' (cassette). Toronto: High Barnet, 1970. *''Al Purdy's Ontario'' (LP). Toronto: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 1971. *''Purdy and Mandel'' (cassette). Toronto: Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, 1971. *''A Poetry Reading by Al Purdy'' (cassette). Toronto: League of Canadian Poets, 1983? *''Selections from The Collected Poems'' (cassette). Toronto: Audio Encore, 1990. *''Necropsy of Love: Selected poems'' (CD). Winnipeg, MB: Cyclops Press, 1998. *''The Al Purdy Songbook'' (CD; with others). Toronto: Borealis Records, 2018. Film *''Al Purdy'' (VHS).Toronto : Council of Ministers of Education, Canada, 1984. *''Al Purdy Was Here'' (DVD & Blu-ray). Toronto: Borealis Records, 2018. Except where noted, discographical information courtesy WorldCat. See also *List of Canadian poets *Timeline of Canadian poetry References Notes External links ;Poems *Al Purdy at Poetry inVoice ("Say the Names," "The Cariboo Horses") *Canadian Poetry Online: Al Purdy - Biography and 6 poems (At Evergreen Cemetery, Lu Yu (AD 1125-1209), Married Man's Song, The Dead Poet, Listening to Myself, The Last Picture in the World *Photos & poems ;Audio / video *Al Purdy at YouTube *Al Purdy: A Life in Letters *Al Purdy's "At the Quinte Hotel" *"Those horrible, beautiful trees" *CBC Digital Archives - Al Purdy, An Uncommon Poet ;Books *Al Purdy at Amazon.com ;About *Al Purdy at the Poetry Foundation *Purdy, Alfred Wellington in the Canadian Encyclopedia *Al Purdy at Harbour Publishing *Al Purdy Was Here Official website *Purdytion, Judith Fitzgerald ;Etc. *In Search of Al Purdy weblog *A.W. Purdy Digital Archive hosted by the University of Saskatchewan Special Collections *Al Purdy was Here'' on Internet Movie Database Category:1918 births Category:2000 deaths Category:Canadian poets Category:Members of the Order of Ontario Category:Officers of the Order of Canada Category:People from Hastings County, Ontario Category:People from Vancouver Category:Governor General's Award winning poets Category:20th-century poets Category:Poets Category:English-language poets